It's All About Being 'Beautiful And Talented'…And Very Sexy
Posted by anastasia on 03-07-2007
Remember in around seventh or eighth grade when "prostitute" or "hooker" became an option for a Halloween costume? I'm pretty sure I collected candy as a "lady of the night" at least once. For some reason the new Pussycat Dolls reality show sparked that memory for me. Maybe it's the outfits.
The adage "sex sells" continues to ring true with last night's ratings of the premiere of "The Search For The Next Doll." What's disturbing to me about the overnight ratings was the very significant number of teen girls who tuned in.
Given the recent APA report on how damaging over sexualized images are for girls, I'm guessing there will be some outcry and backlash over the series. But while the Dads & Daughters campaign may have been successful in stopping Hasbro from making actual Pussycat Dolls for young girls, I would be surprised if there is enough momentum to rally a successful boycott of the reality series — but who knows, maybe there will be one.
What I like about "American Idol" is that looks aren't everything — they do play somewhat of a role, but it didn't stop poor teen mom Fantasia from being victorious. "America's Next Top Model" isn't that much better than The Pussycat Dolls, even with Tyra advocating for more plus size contestants — you still have to conform to specific standards of beauty. "The Search For The Next Doll" is allegedly about "singing and dancing," but we all know it's more about looking and acting sexy according to a rigid standard (that of burlesque performers in Vegas or The Viper Room). It's not as if these are the Dove models in their underwear feeling sexy and beautiful no matter what body type they have.
Maybe to some women, taking up pole dancing or aspiring to be a Pussycat Doll really is empowering, but let's get real: The CW is a youth oriented network — "Smallville," "Gilmore Girls," "Veronica Mars," "One Tree Hill" and "America's Next Top Model: all have huge teen fan bases. So in a sense, they know they are marketing "The Search For The Next Doll" to 12-17s as well as to 18-34s.
While I don't have problems with the concept of burlesque as adult entertainment, just as I don't care how many middle aged women want to jump on the stripper pole to work out or spice up their marriages, I do have a problem pole dancing fashion lines for tweens and with the reality that teen girls are tuning in to "The Search For The Next Doll" on The CW.
What do you think?
March 7th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
On the one hand, I believe in freedom and choice.
On the other hand, I'm the father of a young daughter, and reading about stuff like this makes my skin crawl.
I just hope that I can do a good enough job of helping Marissa realize her own worth so that she doesn't feel the need to conform to others' fantasies.
March 7th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
This goes far beyond tweens…it's 'ambient' background noise that becomes the urban wallpaper damaging the K-5 wee set…
We've been tracking this on playgrounds for 3 years for a documentary called Body Blitz: Media, Shaping Youth, and it's freakin' scary what kind of body shame, self-conciousness, and 'hiding,' kids are doing to deflect some of the body-appearance comments flying around…
Conversely, there are the kids we hear about in the media, strutting their stuff with trashy bravado to emulate and tie these cues to popularity and self-worth.
I just blogged about both, along with the APA study a tad (belatedly) ‘cuz it seems so OBVIOUS that kids are going to be trashed by early sexualization cues and insecurities it wasn’t worth wasting my breath. http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=309
Guess we DO need to keep reinforcing the ‘trickle down impact’ on even younger ages, ‘cuz people still don’t ‘get it.’
There's no such thing as 'sealing off' this type of media to 'pole-dancing hot mamas' thinking tweens and younger are NOT going to be impacted…this kind of media message impacts every age and gender one way or another; it’s naïve to think otherwise.
Say, as long as I’m yapping, Anastasia, what do you know about this new avatar site in beta? Teens? Tweens? Safe? Unsafe? Heard it through the chat grapevine: http://www.imvu.com
Zap me an e-mail or post when time avails. Best, Amy
March 8th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Hi Amy. IMVU is not a "safe" site for kids and tweens. It's a mixed site (teens, 13 and up and adults) and should probably only be recommended for older teens unless carefully supervised.
March 11th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Thanks, Anastasia, appreciate the heads-up. Found some kids on imbee shifting over there and 'recruiting' others in that direction which perked my ears up…I'm working on a firsthand 'tween' piece on imbee's functionality in terms of how kids are using it as a 'progression' from Club Penguin, using our Shaping Youth kids as beta testers, (including my daughter, who is hooked on the whole social media side!) Tx, again. –Amy